When We Were Kings | |
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Directed by | Leon Gast |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Maryse Alberti Paul Goldsmith Kevin Keating Albert Maysles Roderick Young |
Edited by | Leon Gast Taylor Hackford Jeffrey Levy-Hinte Keith Robinson |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Gramercy Pictures |
Release dates | January 1996(Sundance) October 25, 1996 |
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2,789,985 [1] |
When We Were Kings is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Leon Gast about the "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight championship boxing match that was held on October 30, 1974, in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) between world heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. It features archival footage of celebrities, including James Brown, B.B. King, and promoter Don King, in the lead-up to the fight and accompanying Zaire 74 music festival, alongside interview footage of Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Spike Lee and Thomas Hauser from the 1990s.
The film took Gast 22 years to edit and finance, [2] but it was finally released to strong reviews [3] and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1996. [4]
Norman Mailer, George Plimpton, Spike Lee, Malik Bowens, and Thomas Hauser were interviewed for the film in the 1990s. These interviews describe the historical importance of the fight, the questionable ethics of locating the fight in Zaire and accepting funding from the brutal dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, the fight itself, and, particularly, the interviewee's impressions of Ali. The interviews are accompanied by many news clips and photos to summarize Ali and Foreman's careers leading up to the Rumble.
During the buildup to the fight, Ali is shown trash-talking Foreman and talking about his beliefs regarding Africans and African-Americans in more private settings. He speaks of the inherent dignity of the native Africans and his hopes for African-Americans in the future. His relationship of mutual love with the people of Zaire is contrasted with Foreman's awkward and unsuccessful efforts to build his own popularity. Promoter Don King is seen working on his first big promotion.
Performers such as James Brown, B.B. King, and The Spinners are seen performing at Zaire 74, the "black Woodstock" soul music festival that was supposed to accompany the fight, but ended up preceding it by a month because Foreman was injured in training and the fight was delayed (the festival is more fully documented in the 2008 film Soul Power ). [5]
The film culminates with footage of much of the fight itself, interspersed with analysis of Ali's repeated use of the "right-hand lead" in the early rounds (a rarely used punch in professional boxing because it opens the boxer up for easy counterattacks, which Ali surmised would make it the punch for which Foreman was the least prepared) and his famous "rope-a-dope" strategy. This technique entailed Ali taking heavy blows from Foreman over several rounds while using his quick reflexes and the ropes to lessen their impact, which wore out Foreman. Ali knocked out Foreman in the eighth round, regaining the championship taken from him seven years earlier for his refusal to be drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War.
A soundtrack album for the film was released in 1997. It features live festival performances, in addition to new music by Zelma Davis, the duet "When We Were Kings" performed by Brian McKnight and Diana King, and "Rumble in the Jungle", the final recording done by The Fugees, in a collaboration with A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, and John Forté.
When We Were Kings is regarded as one of the best boxing documentaries ever made. It maintains a 98% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with the website's critics consensus calling it "an engrossing documentary that's as much about a time and a place as it is about a fight" [3] and received strong reviews from critics such as Roger Ebert [6] and Edward Guthmann. [7] It was nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News, Talk or Information - Special in 1998, but lost to Dinner with Oprah: A Lifetime Exclusive - Toni Morrison.
The film won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. [4] At the presentation, both Ali and Foreman came up to join the filmmakers to make it clear they had long-since made peace after the fight, with Foreman even helping Ali up the stairs. It was also nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics.
Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the Ring magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970. He was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978 and the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
George Edward Foreman is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he competed between 1967 and 1997 and was nicknamed "Big George". He is a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. As an entrepreneur, he is known for the George Foreman Grill.
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George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as The Rumble in the Jungle, was a heavyweight championship boxing match on October 30, 1974, at the 20th of May Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire, between undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The event had an attendance of 60,000 people and was one of the most watched televised events at the time. Ali won by knockout in the eighth round.
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Stade Tata Raphaël is a multi-purpose stadium in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Originally known as Stade Roi Baudouin when it was inaugurated in 1952 and Stade du 20 Mai in 1967, it was used mostly for football matches. The stadium has a capacity of 80,000 people.
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Leon Jacques Gast was an American documentary film director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. His documentary, When We Were Kings depicts the iconic heavyweight boxing match: The Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. This film would go on to win the 1996 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award. Gast co-directed the 1977 documentary, The Grateful Dead Movie with guitarist Jerry Garcia. The film captured the band's October 1974, five-night performance at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Gast also co-directed the 1983 film Hell's Angels Forever, which focused on the notorious motorcycle club Hells Angels. The Angels are believed to have learned that Gast put material in the documentary which they didn't prefer. To this end, Gast claimed that the Angels tracked him down and beat him up. Gast also produced works on B.B. King and Celia Cruz.
Soul Power is a 2008 documentary film directed by Jeff Levy-Hinte about the Zaire 74 music festival that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire, in September 1974. Although it was planned to accompany the Rumble in the Jungle heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, the festival went ahead as scheduled when the fight was delayed until October after Foreman sustained an injury during training. The film was made from archival footage; other footage shot at the time focusing on the fight was edited to form the 1996 film When We Were Kings.
Zaire 74 was a three-day live music festival that took place on 22 to 24 September 1974 at the Stade du 20 Mai in Kinshasa, Zaire. The concert, conceived by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and record producer Stewart Levine, was meant to be a major promotional event for the heavyweight boxing championship match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, known as The Rumble in the Jungle. When an injury forced Foreman to postpone the fight by six weeks, the festival's intended audience of international tourists was all but eliminated and Levine had to decide whether or not to cancel the event. The decision was made to move forward, and 80,000 people attended.
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Henry A. (Hank) Schwartz,, born in Brooklyn, was an expert in video communications technology and was involved in the broadcast, promotion, and distribution of notable boxing matches involving fighters like Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman during the 1970s. An authority in microwave and satellite technology, Schwartz utilized his expertise to telecast major boxing events such as “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, “The Thrilla in Manila” in the Philippines, as well as other major events in Kingston, Jamaica; Caracas, Venezuela; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Madison Square Garden in New York. Hank has developed and designed systems for E.I. Dupont, Western Electric, Bell Telephone, Westinghouse Electric, Revlon, RCA and others. He also installed and designed the first cyclotron monitoring equipment for Columbia University's School of Engineering.From 1974 to 1978 Schwartz served as Minister of Communications for the former Republic of Zaire.
The Fight is a 1975 non-fiction book by Norman Mailer about the boxing title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman at Kinshasa in Zaire in 1974, known as the "Rumble in the Jungle".
Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner fought each other in a boxing match on March 24, 1975, at the Richfield Coliseum in Richfield Township, Summit County, Ohio.
"Rumble in the Jungle" is a song recorded for the 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings, which depicts the 1974 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman that the song is named after: The Rumble in the Jungle. The song was written and performed by American hip hop group Fugees along with fellow hip hop artists A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, and John Forté. Additional writers credited on the song are Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson, and Chip Taylor since "Rumble in the Jungle" samples recordings written by them. The lyrics of the song focus mostly on Ali and his life, as well as the boxing match itself.
Muhammad Ali is widely regarded by many boxing commentators and historians as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. Boxing magazine The Ring named him number 1 in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras. In 1999, The Associated Press voted Ali the number one heavyweight of the 20th century. In 1999, Ali was named the second greatest boxer in history, pound for pound, by ESPN; behind only welterweight and middleweight legend Sugar Ray Robinson. In December 2007, ESPN listed Ali second in its choice of the greatest heavyweights of all time, behind Joe Louis. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990.